TPG, Baring eye stake in PNB Housing Fin; Shapoorji mulls IPO for solar EPC biz

By Keshav Sunkara

  • 26 Jul 2018

Private equity firms TPG and Baring Private Equity Asia are looking to pick up a 51% stake in PNB Housing Finance, Mint reported, citing three people aware of the development.

Punjab National Bank and The Carlyle Group have initiated a joint process to offer a minimum 51% stake in PNB Housing Finance.

Earlier this week, the potential sellers had invited expressions of interest.

Credit Suisse and PNB Investment Services are advisers to Punjab National Bank on the deal. Carlyle has asked Morgan Stanley to advise on the deal.

Punjab National Bank holds 32.79% stake in the mortgage lender and Carlyle 32.36%.

Carlyle had indirectly picked up 49% stake in PNB Housing Finance when it bought out Destimoney Enterprises Pvt. Ltd from New Silk Route in February 2015. The deal value was pegged at $200-250 million.

When PNB Housing went public in late 2016, Carlyle’s stake dropped to around 37%.

In May 2018, Carlyle sold approximately 4.8% stake in the mortgage lender for around Rs 1,024 crore ($153 million).

Some of this stake was acquired by another existing private equity investor, General Atlantic.

General Atlantic’s holding moved up to around 9.5% with the additional 1% stake it bought.

Separately, Shapoorji Pallonji Group held talks with investment banks for an initial public offering of Sterling and Wilson’s solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business, Mint reported, citing three people aware of the development.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group is seeking a valuation of around $3.5-4 billion for this vertical, the report said.

The group is also weighing options to raise funds from the private market, the report added.

The financial daily said the spokesperson of Sterling and Wilson has denied the plans to raise funds for the solar EPC business.

Last month, VCCircle reported that Sprng Energy Pvt. Ltd, an Indian renewable energy platform set up by British private equity firm Actis, had finalised a deal to buy solar assets from a Shapoorji Pallonji Group company.